Waring Abbott was one of the first guys on the scene to photograph KISS from 1974 til 1981 (which is the years this book focuses on) and in the 200 pages that make up “The Early Years” Waring got some great shots of a band on it’s rise (1974) to the band on a bit of demise once 1981 rolled around.
Ton’s of great photo’s many which I have never seen are shown thoroughout the glossy pages of “The Early Years”.
Look at the Demon standing there scoping the crowd looking to find some female friends to meet in the “Ladies Room!”
Below is a great shot of KISS at Cobo Hall in Detroit.
This has to be one of my favourite shots of Ace (below) all snapped up on vices and laying down the law on his Gibson!
What was a selling feature for me was the inclusion of photos from “The Elder” era. KISS back then never had any trouble getting it on with a camera now did they?
Interesting to see this shot with Ace and when you flip the pages of The Early Years here’s KISS as a three piece as Ace went bonkers!
Nice to see Eric Carr featured in many of the The Elder shots in this book!
So this book of course was done hand in hand with Gene and Paul so it’s their quotes in this book and only their quotes as Ace and Peter are nowhere to be found=SHOCKER!
Ace has many photos of him this book but Peter Criss got the shaft here folk as he’s pretty much only in full band and live shots.
At times Demon and Starchild get a little nutty over there ex drummer which is a shame.
So thats the knock on this book. Paul and Gene had full control and what they say goes.
deKe’s Early Years Rating of the layout and pics in the book- 8/10
deKe’s Early Years Rating of Gene and Paul calling the shots-6/10
HAHAH I love the two scores 😉 Yeah they are control freaks aren’t they?
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Control Freaks big time but I suppose they earned that right after all but with books like this include the other 2 guys for Pete’s sake…
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Good on you for the two ratings Deke. The Stones do the same whenever they release old stuff from Bill Wyman’s days in the band. I think its pretty shitty, personally.
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Thanks Joe…
Yeah it is shitty when bands do stuff like this but I guess thats why they call em ex’s…lol
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Eric Carr was so adorable with his Kiss makeup! Whether that was a good or bad thing, who knows!
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Eric Carr was a great fit in KISS. Miss that guy
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Yeah, I wish he was still in Kiss too. At least he had his own makeup, even if it wasn’t very bada**.
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great stuff deke!
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Thanks Andrew. Something different this week lol
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Nice looking stuff, even with Gene and Paul’s iron fist lording over it.
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Iron Fist haha…very true nothing gets past there radar.
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I have never seen this before how cool. And the two scores are awesome.
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Say what? You have never seen this? Chalk up one for deKe! lol
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LOL!!
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Peter and Ace are there…no matter what Gene and Paul do or say…they cannot erase history but they try…and it only makes people sympathetic to Peter.
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Books like these are gold for us fans. I hope the other photographers who took pics from other artists are also thinking of doing similar projects.
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